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NewsJessica Fino
4 Jun 2018 02:00pm

Legalising cannabis in UK could raise £3.5bn in taxes

The legalisation of cannabis could bring the UK Treasury up to £3.5bn a year in taxes, new research has predicted

If the UK introduced a system similar to that used in established US state cannabis markets such as Colorado and Washington, it could generate an income of as much as £2.26bn in taxes and licence fees, according to report by Health Poverty Action.

Moreover, if the tax income it generated in the UK was similar to that currently in the Netherlands, then this would be around £1.4bn, the report said.

But if the cannabis market worked more like the alcohol or tobacco markets in terms of tax income, the income brought by cannabis duties could be “conservatively” estimated at £1.9bn or up to £3.5bn.

The report said that, whilst it is unknown how the market would respond to regulation and what regulatory model would be used, a legal recreational cannabis market would bring at least £1bn annually.

This £1bn was the equivalent of the basic salaries of all midwives in England, the report noted, with some left over.

“We would not know precisely until we tried it, but the emerging evidence from the US is that reasonable tax contributions and mitigating other health risks is possible,” it said.

Legalising cannabis would also save a total of £291m across the police, court, prison and probation services in England and Wales, money that could be spent targeting more serious and violent crimes.

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Comments

Let's start by legalising medical cannabis. It is not acceptable that anybody should have to buy their medical treatments from an illegal dealer, rather than a pharmacy.

Alex

05 June 2018 14:44:51

Is it OK that my 3 year old son smokes soft drugs?
I live in a block of flats in Putney and my son goes to nursery in Roehampton.
On an average week day he gets to smoke Cannabis 2-3 times. On the walk to nursery, a group of 20 somethings stands outside a cafe smoking weed (to avoid this would add 30 mins each way to our commute).
Directly outside the nursery is a bus stop; most days someone is smoking Cannabis there. The nursery windows are open in the summer so all the children get to puff. I've asked the smokers to stop and received abuse. One told me to call the police as, he informed me, they wouldn't do anything about it.
In the evening, neighbours from two flats in the block smoke cannabis in the communal entrance lobby. I get my son to hold his breath as we go through, but he can only manage 8 seconds and I can't get him in through my front door in that time.
If I go into Putney town, it is as likely as not we get another 'hit', in the park/playground, outside the library, or i

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